Apparatus for interoperation between legacy software and screen reader programs

ABSTRACT

A computer program for facilitating operation of a screen reader with legacy programs whose user interface definitions do not conform to the design guidelines expected by the screen reader program. A graphical user interface is analyzed to identify a logical sequence of user interface elements within the interface. The sequence of user interface elements within a definition of the user interface is compared with the identified logical sequence to identify any required reordering of the elements to conform to the identified logical sequence. One or more lists or tables are generated for each separable user interface component to (1) specify the required sequence for reordering incorrectly-sequenced user interface controls within the definition and to (2) identify a new static text control which is dynamically generated for use with an edit control which does not have a required static text control.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is a continuation application of pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/475,906, which was filed on Oct. 27, 2003, which is assigned to the assignee of the present invention. The present application claims priority benefits to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/475,906. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/475,906 claims the benefit of the following applications under 35 U.S.C. § 365: PCT Application PCT/GB02/01106, filed Mar. 11, 2002, and published under PCT 21(2) in the English language which claims priority to Great Britain Application Serial No. 0110326.6, filed Apr. 27, 2001.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to the interoperation between accessibility-assistance programs, such as screen reader programs, and other computer programs and apparatus.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

There has been increasing recognition in recent years of the need to design software products and Web pages with consideration for the needs of people with disabilities, to avoid excluding certain groups of individuals from access to information technology and information content. Recent legislation from the United States and United Kingdom governments and in other countries has made it mandatory to facilitate access to goods and services for disabled people, and this has emphasized the importance of software vendors and information providers moving towards more accessible software products. Furthermore, with appropriate solutions to accessibility issues, the World Wide Web Internet service, and information technology in general, can provide a very useful service to blind and partially-sighted people which increases their self-reliance and their ability to proactively participate in information exchange.

One of the important ways a software product can be made accessible is for it to work correctly with screen reader programs. These programs read aloud information displayed on the screen, or convert screen information to Braille, so that users who are blind or partially sighted can access the software product. A number of GUI screen reader products are currently available, including Screen Reader/2™ from International Business Machines Corporation, Jaws™ for Windows™ from Henter-Joyce Inc., Winvision™ from Arctic Technologies Inc., and Outspoken™ for Windows from Berkeley Access. Many of these screen readers are able to read icons and other graphical objects. For example, the Outspoken screen reader converts dialog boxes, radio buttons and other graphical controls to audible output, and can be used with many application programs developed for the Windows operating system.

When a software product has dialogs or panels that require the user to enter data or other information, they typically have one or more lines of text describing the data to be entered, using a control known as a ‘static text control’, followed by an entry field where the user types the data (an ‘edit control’). The screen reader software looks for the static text control immediately before the edit control, and reads this aloud to the user as a prompt as to what to enter at that point. The elements of the dialog or panel are typically defined in a file as an ordered list of controls, and the screen reader will usually read aloud the controls in the order in which they appear in this list. For the screen reader to read the dialog or panel in the correct logical order, the controls must be in this list in the correct order. For a typical screen reader to work correctly with prompts for entry fields, it is important that:

-   1) the prompt for the edit control is implemented using a static     text control; and -   2) the correct static text control is immediately before the edit     control in the dialog or panel definition file.

Previous attempts to enable the operation of a screen reader have relied on providing “accessibility” guidelines for designers of user interfaces—if user interfaces are designed, or redesigned, to conform to the guidelines then the standard screen readers will be able to read and interpret graphic as well as text elements and to present them in the correct sequence.

However, legacy programs written before software vendors focussed on accessibility requirements of disabled people can have many dialog and panel definitions which do not meet these rules, and each definition may have been translated into many languages if the software products are sold in many different countries. Since the dialog or panel will usually appear visually correct whatever the order of the controls in the definition, the precise sequence only becomes significant when considering compatibility with screen reader programs. The legacy programs may also use controls other than static text controls as the prompt field for edit fields, for example a ‘radio button’ control which allows the user to choose only one from a range of choices—in this case an entry field may be used to enter a parameter only if a particular choice is made. A screen reader which is designed to read out the text of a static text control associated with an edit control will not work correctly if the prompt is a radio button control, and it will not read out elements in the correct order if the order of controls within a dialog or panel definition is incorrect.

For programmers to test and make changes to the order of controls or to add controls within all the dialog and panel definitions across multiple language versions of a complex software product to ensure correct operation of screen readers would be a long and error-prone task, and would be likely to result in dialogs and panels that were visually different from those that existing users are familiar with and which are shown in the product documentation.

U.S. Pat. No. 6,144,377 discloses an architecture for enabling an accessibility aid such as a screen reader program to access and manipulate user interface (UI) elements of an application program, including graphical elements such as edit boxes and buttons. According to U.S. Pat. No. 6,144,377, a screen reader is enabled to access the program code and data which implements a UI element, to examine and manipulate various characteristics of the UI element such as its location or text description. However, U.S. Pat. No. 6,144,377 includes no disclosure of the problem of a typical screen reader being unable to read screen information completely or in the correct order if the controls or the order of those controls within a user interface element definition is different from that expected by the screen reader.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In one embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a method for facilitating operation of a screen reader, comprising the steps of: analyzing a graphical user interface to identify a logical sequence of user interface elements within the interface; comparing the sequence of user interface elements within a definition of the user interface with the identified logical sequence to identify any required reordering of the elements to conform to the identified logical sequence; and performing the required reordering of the elements to conform to the identified logical sequence.

A method according to this embodiment of the present invention enables a screen reader which relies on a particular sequence of user interface elements to read GUI information in the correct order.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the method preferably involves generating, in response to the analysis or comparison step, a list of the user interface elements within the interface (or within a separable component of it) which list represents the identified logical sequence, and subsequently using this list to specify a required sequence of controls within the user interface definition. The steps of comparing and reordering, which enable a screen reader to read user interface element controls in the identified logical sequence, may comprise generating a modified user interface definition in response to initiating display of the user interface, wherein the sequence of controls within the modified user interface definition conforms to the identified logical sequence.

This generation of a modified user interface definition at display time may be implemented by calling functions of an operating system to implement the reordering of elements into the sequence specified in the list. Thus, at least in operating system environments in which functions are available for accessing and manipulating user interface definitions, very little new program code may be implemented.

For example, ordered lists of user interface elements which represent the identified logical sequence may be generated, and then using program code which is responsive to an “initiate dialog display” command or message (the “WM_INITDIALOG” message in the example of Microsoft's Windows operating system) to call operating system functions such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,144,377.

Embodiments of the present invention may be used to ensure correct operation of a screen reader for a complete user interface, but in one embodiment performs its processing separately for separately defined user interface components such as panels, dialogs or windows (which may each contain many different selectable or editable user interface elements). Embodiments of the present invention can achieve a reordering of user interface elements within the definition of a window, panel or dialog so that a screen reader reads the controls in the correct logical sequence which is meaningful to users.

Since the embodiments of the present invention allow dialogs and panels within a legacy program to be used correctly by screen reader programs without having to manually change the numerous dialog and panel definitions within the legacy program, the embodiments of the present invention can be implemented faster and more reliably than if it relied on manually re-ordering the elements of an interface definition. According to embodiments of the invention, dialog/panel definitions within an application program are processed at one of three possible times:

-   1. By a software development tool before the dialog/panel     definitions are compiled into binary format. -   2. After the dialog/panel definitions are compiled into binary     format, but before they are used to display them. -   3. By a run-time process which performs its operations when the     dialogs/panels are displayed on the screen. The run-time process may     be a feature of an operating system, a feature of the application     program which includes the user interface, a component of a screen     reader program, or a separate tool such as a Java™ applet or ActiveX     control. An application program in this context is any program which     performs data processing functions using the resources of an     operating system, including middleware and business integration     products such as a message delivery or message broker products as     well as programs performing end-user-requested operations such as an     on-line booking or ordering program.

The last of these alternative implementation times may be the simplest to implement, as it does not require knowledge of the format of either the source or compiled binary formats of the dialog/panel definitions. This embodiment of the present invention will be described in more detail below.

In some embodiments of the present invention, lists or tables of information that are generated for each faulty dialog or panel definition are used. A process which is run when the dialog or panel is first displayed may use the information in the tables to correct the problems. The same lists or tables may be used for all the different language versions of the dialog or panel, which ensures consistency and greatly reduces the task of achieving correct operation of a screen reader compared with solutions which require separate manual re-ordering of GUI elements for each language version.

Other dynamic alterations to legacy dialog and panel definitions may occur, such as to comply with other accessibility requirements; to hide or add controls, perhaps tailoring the dialog/panel to the current status or situation; and/or to pre-fill fields with default values before the dialog/panel is shown.

In another embodiment of the present invention, the problem of user interface elements such as edit controls in a dialog definition not being preceded by the static text control prompt or other user interface element which is expected by a screen reader is addressed. For example, if an edit control such as an entry field is not immediately preceded by a static text control which prompts sighted users to enter data, then the screen reader will be unable to read out an appropriate prompt for unsighted users. According to an embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a method of analyzing a user interface definition to identify any instances in which user interface definition elements which are required by a screen reader have been omitted and an alternative element used instead. If a required element has been omitted, then a new instance of the required user interface element is dynamically created from the contents of the alternative element.

One application of this embodiment of the present invention is to add to a user interface definition file an invisible static text control immediately preceding any edit controls which are missing the expected static text control. The text for this static text control, which will be read out by a screen reader, can be extracted from whichever other user interface control had been used as a prompt for sighted users (for example, extracting the text label of a radio button if that was the visual prompt). An embodiment of the present invention for addressing this problem of edit controls which do not have static text controls will be described in more detail later.

Methods implementing the embodiments of the present invention may be implemented by computer programs, such as may be provided as computer program products comprising program code recorded on a machine-readable recording medium. Further aspects of the invention comprise program products and data processing apparatus incorporating means for implementing the invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWING

A better understanding of the present invention can be obtained when the following detailed description is considered in conjunction with the following drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates an embodiment of a data processing system;

FIG. 2 illustrates an embodiment of a screen reader using the services of an operating system to access an interface definition file;

FIG. 3 illustrates a definition file for a dialog box within the user interface of a legacy application program in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 illustrates a visual representation of the dialog box defined in FIG. 3, with an indication of the order in which they appear in the definition of FIG. 3, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 illustrates a correction controller component accessing UI element sequence lists and using an access component of an operating system to change the sequence of UI elements within a UI definition in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention; and

FIGS. 6A and 6B illustrate the sequence of steps of a method for processing user interface definitions according to an embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

FIG. 1 is a schematic representation of a data processing system such as is well known in the art, in which a screen reader program 40 has been installed on the system to use functions of an operating system 20 to access the user interface elements of an application program 30 and to output information via an output device 60. As will be clear to persons skilled in the art, this is not limited to any particular data processing system or apparatus, or to any particular type of application program or to a specific operating system or screen reader. However, in order to describe a specific example implementation of the invention let us assume that the screen reader program is a typical screen reader program for a Windows operating system and is adapted to access the application program's user interface definition file which is held within the system memory 50 when the application program 30 is running on the system.

As shown in FIG. 2, a component of the operating system 20 accesses a binary format definition file 70 for a user interface of an application program 30 when creating user interface controls. A screen reader program 40 uses the resources of the operating system to access the definition 70 and to extract appropriate cues for presenting to the user. For example, let us assume that the screen reader extracts textual information from the user interface definition file using an access component 80 of the operating system 20, converts it to audio signals and outputs audible information via a speaker 60. The access component may, for example, implement the Accessibility Interface disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,144,377.

As discussed above, typical screen reader programs only operate correctly to provide complete and correctly ordered audio information when the user interface controls have the correct sequence in the definition file. This is not always the case for legacy applications for which the user interface was created without consideration of the access requirements of blind and partially-sighted users.

An example definition of a user interface dialog box is shown in FIG. 3, and the corresponding visual representation of the dialog box is shown in FIG. 4. The elements of the dialog box, including edit fields, buttons and radio buttons, appear in the definition of FIG. 3 in a sequence other than the logical sequence of the dialog. This would be an acceptable approach to programming the interface since coordinate information within the definition determines the visual positions of each component without any consideration of their sequence within the definition. However, the numbering of elements 1 to 10 in FIG. 4 indicates the sequence in which the user interface elements will be read by a typical screen reader or other accessibility tool if the present invention is not used. The audible prompts provided by the screen reader will then only serve to confuse users, and no prompt will be provided for some edit fields. For example, referring to FIGS. 3 and 4, the prompts read to the user when the cursor is placed in each edit field are incorrect—for the first two edit fields no prompt will be read at all; and for the third edit field the prompt would be “Static control 1”.

One solution to this problem is to manually recode all of the user interface component definitions within an application program to position user interface elements in the order expected by a screen reader and to ensure that required static text prompts are included. This would be a very time-consuming and error-prone task if the application program to be modified includes a complex user interface. Furthermore, this task will have to be repeated for each different language version of the interface.

An alternative solution implementing the present invention involves using program code to automatically modify the sequence of user interface elements within a user interface definition to present the elements to a screen reader in a sequence which conforms to the logical sequence of the visual representation of the interface. This modification of the definition is preferably implemented when a user interface component definition is provided to the operating system for display. At display time, the operating system is provided with information defining a required sequence (an ordered list of interface element identifiers) and is instructed to update the properties of the interface elements accordingly. The operating system retains this updated sequence information such that the sequence can be queried by a screen reader program—for example using an access interface such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,144,377.

This solution will now be described in more detail with reference to FIGS. 6A and B. Referring to FIG. 6A, a user interface is analyzed in step 200 to identify any elements of the dialogs, panels or windows within a user interface which do not conform to the user interface requirements of typical screen readers. In step 210, in one embodiment, the user interface may be compared with a set of approved interface layout templates or rules to automatically determine the logically correct sequence of elements.

In step 215, a determination is made as to whether the elements are listed in the correct order. If the elements are not listed in the correct order, then, in step 220, a simple list or table is generated which comprises a list of the interface component's interface element identifiers arranged in the correct order. This is later stored, in step 240, in association with the interface component definition to enable subsequent reordering of elements.

If, however, the elements are listed in the correct order, then, in step 225, a determination is made as to whether there are missing static text controls in the elements. If a dialog or panel includes edit controls such as entry fields with prompts displayed by controls other than static text controls, then, in step 230, a further list or table is generated for inserting text control and later stored in step 240. This table lists, as pairs, the identifier of the control used as the prompt and the identifier of the edit control and includes a pointer to a dynamically created user interface element, as will be described below.

If, however, there are no missing static text controls in the elements, then the process proceeds to step 240.

The analysis and list generation in steps 200, 220 and 230 described above may be performed manually by an interface programmer, and then subsequent automated steps of the method will use the lists to process the interface definition. However, in an alternative implementation, the initial analysis and list generation may be implemented by program code which compares the elements of a dialog box or panel with a set of approved interface layout templates or rules to automatically determine the logically correct sequence of elements. The program code which implements such an automation of list generation may be a programming tool used during program development (for example when creating new versions of a legacy program) or a component of an operating system which analyzes application programs at install time or application startup. The rules for ordering the user interface controls are generally well understood, having already been defined as part of the “accessibility” guidelines for designers of user interfaces. The rules for determining a logical sequence for a well designed interface can reuse the design guideline rules. For example, these rules will include simple instructions such as to read from left to right and top to bottom, to follow a text prompt with the associated edit field, or to read the full set of user interface elements within a group before stepping to other elements outside the group.

Subsequent to the steps of list generation, a further program code component (referred to hereafter as the correction controller 100, and shown in FIG. 5) is executed when the dialog or panel is first displayed. Functions performed by the correction controller are shown in FIG. 6B. Referring to FIG. 6B, in step 250, correction controller 100 is invoked. If the controls within the existing interface definition are out of order, this code component 100 steps through the sequence list in step 260 which was stored in association with the user interface definition file, instructing the operating system which control should follow the preceding one. This sequence information is effectively recorded as one of the properties of the user interface elements for subsequent interpretation by the operating system, although this may be implemented by the operating system separately storing the correct sequence information without changing the actual interface definition. This re-ordering is represented schematically in FIG. 5 as the move from user interface definition 70 to a re-ordered definition 70′.

In addition to the ordering problem, the example dialog box and definition of FIGS. 3 and 4 demonstrate an additional problem which arises from the way an accessibility interface is implemented in known operating systems. With certain operating systems, the prompt read for an edit field by an accessibility aid such as a screen reader is always taken from a static text field which must immediately precede the edit control. Even when the order of the elements is corrected using the correction controller 100 of the present invention, the third edit control shown in FIG. 4 is preceded by a radio button instead of a static text field, and this will result in no prompt or an incorrect prompt being read out by a screen reader.

To solve this problem, if there are edit controls with prompts that are not static controls, the correction controller component 100 steps through the previously stored list or table of control pairs in step 270. It reads the location, size and text of the control that was formerly used as the prompt. It then, in step 280, dynamically creates a static text control, with the same position, size and text; but which is invisible (i.e. its properties specify that it is not to be displayed in the visual representation of the interface). Finally, in step 290, the correction controller 100 instructs the operating system that the new static text control should follow the original prompt control, and that the edit control should follow the new static text control, and the operating system updates the interface elements' properties to reflect this sequence.

An example implementation of the present invention will now be described in more detail, in which the correction of problems within a dialog or panel definition is performed at the time the dialog or panel is first displayed on a screen. To correct the ordering of elements in the dialog or panel, a simple list (or table) is required consisting of the numeric or symbolic identifiers of each element, in the desired order. For the example dialog shown in FIG. 4, this list might read:

IDC_STATIC_1,

IDC_EDIT_1,

IDC_STATIC_2,

IDC_EDIT_2,

IDC_RADIO_1,

IDC_EDIT_3,

IDC_RADIO_2,

IDOK,

IDC_BUTTON_FIX

A code fragment is invoked as the dialog or panel is first displayed (for the Microsoft Windows operating system, this is when the “WM_INITDIALOG” message is received by the application) to implement the following functions:

For each pair of identifiers in the list

-   -   Call the operating system to order the second element after the         first

Next pair

To correct the problem of user interface elements other than a static text control preceding an edit control as the dialog or panel is displayed on the screen, a combination of a table and code using this table can also be used. The problem is solved by creating a hidden static text control dynamically in the same place as the other preceding control. The new static text control is given the same text as the other preceding control, and inserted in the order between the other preceding control and the edit control. When the dialog or panel is dismissed, this new static control is deleted. In an example implementation of this method, the following elements are needed for each affected edit control in the dialog or panel:

-   -   Identifier of the edit control     -   Identifier of the control that precedes the edit control     -   Whether the preceding control is a static text control     -   Pointer to the static text control dynamically created

For the sample dialog shown in FIG. 4, this table might read:

{ { IDC_EDIT_1, IDC_STATIC_1, TRUE, NULL }, { IDC_EDIT_2, IDC_STATIC_2, TRUE, NULL }, { IDC_EDIT_3, IDC_RADIO_1, FALSE, NULL } };

A code fragment which is run when the dialog or panel is first displayed implements the following functions:

For each row in the table If preceding control is a static control Call the operating system to ensure the edit control is after the preceding control Else Dynamically create a new static control Remember the its address in the table Read the text and position of the preceding control Set the new static control to have the same text and position Set the new static control to be invisible order the new static control after the preceding control Order the edit control after the new static control End Next row

A code fragment run when the dialog or panel is dismissed implements the following functions:

For each row in the table If pointer to static control dynamically created is non-null Delete static control End Next row

Only one copy of the code fragments that make up the correction controller are required for the legacy application. As each dialog/panel/window is displayed, the correction controller is called with the address of the table that corrects the controls for that particular dialog/panel/window. Thus there is minimal increase to the size/complexity of the code in the legacy application and the task of generating the lists/tables is relatively simple to implement.

Embodiments of the invention provide the following advantages:

-   1) The definition files, which exist as one per national language,     are left unchanged. -   2) The changes required, i.e. the lists or tables, only have to be     defined once per dialog/panel, not once per dialog/panel per     national language version. The correction controller code can be     common to all the dialogs/panels. -   3) The verification/testing effort is considerably reduced compared     with known alternatives—a dialog or panel checked in one national     language should be correct in all languages as the code and tables     are common to all languages. -   4) The dialogs and panels remain visually unchanged, which means     they will still match existing users' expectations, and any pictures     of the dialog or panel in the documentation.

Although the system, method and computer program product are described in connection with several embodiments, it is not intended to be limited to the specific forms set forth herein, but on the contrary, it is intended to cover such alternatives, modifications and equivalents, as can be reasonably included within the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims. 

1. A computer program product embodied in a computer readable storage medium for facilitating operation of a screen reader, the computer program product comprising the programming instructions for: analyzing a graphical user interface to identify a logical sequence of user interface elements within the interface; comparing a sequence of user interface elements within a definition of the user interface with the identified logical sequence to identify any required reordering of the elements to conform to the identified logical sequence; and performing the required reordering of the elements to conform to the identified logical sequence; wherein the programming instruction for comparing the sequence of user interface elements within the definition of the user interface comprises comparing the sequence of user interface elements within the definition of the user interface with a set of predefined rules for user interface definitions and, responsive to identifying non-conformance with a rule requiring a specific user interface control, the computer program product further comprises the programming instruction for: generating an instance of the required user interface control; wherein the set of predefined rules comprises a rule requiring each edit control within a user interface definition to be immediately preceded by a static text control, and wherein, responsive to identifying non-conformance with said rule, generating a new static text control adding the new control to the user interface definition; in response to said identification of non-conformance for an edit control, the computer program product further comprises the following programming instruction: generating a table including an identifier of the edit control, an identifier of the control which precedes the edit control, and a pointer to the new static text control; wherein the programming instruction for adding the new static text control to the user interface definition is performed in response to a command or message to initiate display of the user interface.
 2. The computer program product as recited in claim 1, wherein a text for the new static text control is extracted from the user interface element that immediately precedes the edit control within the identified logical sequence.
 3. The computer program product as recited in claim 1 further comprising the programming instruction for setting properties of the new static text control to prevent its display within a visual representation of the user interface.
 4. The computer program product as recited in claim 1, wherein, in response to said comparing programming instruction, an ordered list of user interface element identifiers is generated to represent a required sequence of user interface elements.
 5. The computer program product as recited in claim 4, wherein said list is stored in association with said user interface definition and said programming instruction for performing the required reordering of the elements comprises modifying the user interface definition to implement the required sequence.
 6. The computer program product as recited in claim 1, wherein the programming instruction for performing the required reordering comprises modifying the user interface definition by adding sequence information as a property of the user interface elements.
 7. The computer program product as recited in claim 1, wherein the programming instruction for performing the required reordering is performed in response to a command or message to initiate display of the user interface. 